It was odd to get a call from his sister so early in the morning. Yuki-nee liked to sleep in, she wasn't usually up this early. The night guard had already gone home, and Inaho had dismissed the day guard to stand outside the hospital room. One of the nurses had already come in to check on Slaine, but Inaho was hesitant to let her do anything to invasive. Slaine was still asleep, and Inaho was of the opinion he hadn't gotten enough sleep lately. It was a good sign to see him sleeping so normally. It almost seemed like a return to before the whole debacle, when Slaine could sleep all day. Now looking back on it, that had been a clear indicator of emotional distress. Inaho would need to keep a closer eye on things.

With only him and Slaine in the room, it had been very quiet. He'd been fiddling with his phone, seated in a chair by the bed, when the obnoxious ring tone Yuki-nee had assigned for herself shattered the silence of the hospital room. Slaine woke with a start, and it was only the respirator that kept his breath even and strong.

Inaho did not consider that long, instead, he pressed the call button to summon the nurse, stood from his chair. He hobbled a little ways away from the bed, but not far enough away that he couldn't get at Slaine if it became necessary. He then answered his phone, pressing it to his ear. "Early morning for you."

The other person on the line chuckled, and Inaho easily recognized his sister's voice. The chuckle then shifted to a groan. "I can get up early when I need to!"

"Did you need to?" Slaine's eyes still held that glossy look, like he wasn't awake yet, or that he wasn't yet aware of where he was. He looked dazed, and a bit confused. Inaho's eyes shifted to the little red call button next to the bed, and turned away.

Yuki-nee did not answer his question. Sometimes, she did that. He wasn't always sure what it meant. "We had a visitor last night. A friend of yours."

Inaho's mind went straight to the day before, and his sudden visitor. Seylum had disguised herself as a nurse, he hoped she had picked something appropriate to cloak herself as this time. For a brief moment, he wondered if he had made the proper decision by staying at the hospital overnight. Seylum did not do house calls for nothing. He hoped she hadn't been in any real danger, though she should have had more guards if that was the case. Inaho dismissed that line of thought as irrelevant. If he went to long without answering Yuki-nee, she would grow suspicious.

"Another well wisher?" He'd had quite a few of those. Nina had sent a get well e-card, which had been inappropriately cheerful and loud. Calm had mentioned that he was going to fly in as soon as he was finished with a project. Marito had sent a bottle of something -he surmised it was for Yuki, and not for him, and of course Inko and Rayet had flown down to see about his condition. Even if Yuki-nee was talking about Seylum, this was the safest response, given the various possible scenarios.

The bark of laughter on the other end of the phone was not encouraging. "Somehow I doubt that." Inaho wasn't sure how to interpret that statement, so he chose not to respond. Instead waiting for her to continue. She knew him well, because she didn't pause for long. "I know you're 'busy' but you should come home. She's still here. I plied her with ice cream, and animated movies, and then melodrama. She cried at the ending of Ponyo! Who does that? It's happy!" He could visualize Yuki-nee balking for a few seconds, before she cleared her throat. "She's here, and I'll be keeping her here as long as I can, but I think she actually has things to do. She wants to see you."

It was Seylum, and Yuki-nee knew it. The disguise must not have been that good. "Inko also says hi. You should spend time with her, Nao. She's worried about you."

Inaho shifted his eyes back over towards Slaine. His eyes had slid shut again, but it was obvious that he was not sleeping. Just lethargic, as usual. It seemed irresponsible to just leave. "Progress remains minimal. Leaving prematurely seems unwise."

He heard a frustrated sign from the other end of the phone. "Suit yourself Nao. I just think this will be important."

Inaho found he couldn't argue with her, not that he would -he always seemed to lose the real arguments. "You're probably right." He let that statement hang in the air for a few moments, before he decided his next line. "Do not cook for her. We want her opinions of our hospitality to be positive."

There was a distinctive choking sound on the other end of the phone, and an irritated "Nao!" exploded from the phone before he was able to press the disconnect button. He almost expected her to call back, but as his phone remained silent, he slipped back into the seat next to Slaine's bed side. The nurse would be arriving any moment for blood work, and with Slaine's breakfast of milk. He had been pleased to read over the medical report Seylum had given him, to find that Slaine showed no indicators of lactose intolerance. That was another complication they did not need.

"The nurse will be here soon."

Slaine did not answer. Inaho hadn't expected him to. He was looking over the machines Slaine was hooked up to when he did speak, and Inaho had not expected it. "That was the woman." Inaho had not anticipated being answered. For a few seconds, he let his mind focus on the fact that Slaine had said something, and it had been mostly unprompted, which was rare. He'd been about to say something, to clarify Slaine's statement, when Slaine spoke again. "She's loud. Nothing like you." The statement almost seemed like it was meant to be an insult, but Inaho wasn't sure who was being insulted. Inaho chose to disregard it.

"She is forward." Of all the things he could say about his sister, that was the first thing that came to mind. She still baffled him from time to time, but he doubted that was any fault of her own.

"You should treat her better."

"You are in no position to be telling me how to treat others." The statement was out of Inaho's mouth before he even considered it. There was too much to mull over, to many possibilities about how Slaine had somehow come to that conclusion. None of them gave him much comfort. The most obvious of those many conclusions, was that Inaho had not been the only one watching. He didn't know if he liked that thought.